Why Won’t MIL-SOC Happen?
- New, emerging business opportunity
- Likely to grow significantly by 2010
- Motivated by high-volume commercial opportunities
Notes:
However, as mentioned earlier, a new business is emerging to perform the necessary “impedance match” between SOC customers and silicon fabrication--the chip design service companies, Cadence Spectrum Services representing a state-of-the-art example.
These companies would be the most likely place to look for a solution to MIL-SOC. Today, they are focussed on high-volume consumer applications and are also unlikely to be willing to provide the long-term stable relationship the military would need.
However, should an acceptable business model be found, perhaps by partnering with industries that have a similar need (e.g. commercial aerospace, NASA), such a design services “factory” model is likely to be the best solution.
Even so, given the unique set of military needs, some of which a have been outlined above, a significant amount of research is required to put the tools, methodologies, software systems, and standards in place that will be required to facilitate a MIL-SOC design capability. For reasons outlined above, it is very unlikely industrial investment in R&D will emphasize many of these requirements. In fact, they are likely to move away from many of them over time.